U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,322, issued to Anderson et al. of FMC Corporation on 3 Oct. 1972, discloses a discontinuously operating apparatus for pitting peaches including a shuffle feeder, a multiple lane conveyor having fruit holding flights, an orienting station to align the peaches so that their suture plans are transverse to the direction of their movement along the apparatus, and a cutting station for cutting in half the peaches and separating the pits.
The application PCT/IB2015/051641 describes a machine for recognizing and orienting fruits, especially peaches, for their automatic pitting, comprising a fruit holding flight conveyor in which a belt having fruit multiple lanes and being constituted by mesh members and fruit holding flights, advances longitudinally in a frame from a feeding station up to a cutting station, the fruit holding flights being shaped with a number of recesses. The machine according to the cited patent application also includes a fruit recognizing station that is suitable to detect the position of the vertical suture plane, to calculate the angle between the suture line and the cutting line corresponding to the dihedral angle formed between the vertical suture plane and the vertical cutting plane, and to communicate either information on the calculated dihedral angle or information of detection failure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,549 relates to the detection of fragmented pits in peach halves that are positioned protruding in fruit holding flights with their convex part facing upwards, and describes means for determining the translucency of the peaches and then classifying the peach halves having a pit fragment. This means comprises a monitoring station including a radiation source spaced from radiation detection means for the above detection. In particular, the peach halves are transferred with their convex part facing said radiation source and with their concave facing said detection means that senses the radiation transmitted through the peach halves.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,717 discloses a pitter for removing pits from peaches, in which conveyor and orienting means is provided for delivering a plurality of drupe halves having pits or pit halves therein to pit removing devices that operate in synchronism with the delivery of the drupe halves thereto. The conveyor and orienting means automatically adjusts the positions of the drupe halves for pitting, and the conveyor means holds them for resisting rotation while applying a rotary force to the pits relative to said drupe halves to remove said pits.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,673,584 discloses pitting mechanisms for pitting half peaches which eliminate the necessity for raising and lowering a pitting head, thereby permitting a faster pitting without stopping the progress of the fruit holder.